Boys basketball: Lee-Huntsville 63, Bob Jones 45 (photos, video)

Lee's Tony Reynolds drives to the basket against Bob Jones during the Huntsville Times Classic. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The word near the very top of the whiteboard in the Bob Jones locker room was "patience." It was essential to coach Graham Aderholt's message to the Patriots before facing Lee.

It was patience that kept Bob Jones from being blown away. But it was the lack thereof that cost the Patriots in a devastating first quarter, falling almost impossibly behind and losing to Lee 63-45 in the first round of the Huntsville Times Classic at Huntsville High.

Lee's defensive intensity at the outset enabled the Generals to take a 20-2 first-quarter lead, with Bob Jones committing eight turnovers. As Aderholt put it, "We dug ourselves a hole that was hard to get out of."

With some bit of patience, however, the Patriots threw a second-quarter scare into the Generals, reeling off a 12-0 stretch.

"We could have folded," Aderholt said. "It tells you a lot about our guys that we didn't. Our kids have got something about them. They play with a lot of character."

"Bob Jones is a team that always keeps coming at you," Lee coach Greg Brown said. "You can't afford a lapse against a team like that."

This was a rematch of a two-point Lee win from earlier in the season, a close margin that's all-too-familiar for the Patriots. Of their 10 losses, seven have been by seven points or less, Aderholt said.

Lee's defense pulled off 11 steals, forced 23 turnovers and held the Patriots to 34 percent shooting from the floor.